How to keep text formatting in XSL

I have a VB application where the user can enter some text. This text is then put in an XML to be used by an XSL. Is there any to keep as much text formatting as possible(paragraph, bold, italic, etc...)?

Also, if I format some text using various tags like list-blocks and blocks, and then I passed this text to a template with param, the XSL keeps only the text and forget the blocks and the rest! Very annoying!

Second line after a break
</block>
<data>
The following is a link of recommended vendors:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.microsoft.com">Microsoft</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ibm.com">IBM</a></li>
</ul>
</data>
<transform>
<p class="user">
This is a new era of <b><i>Information <u>Overload</u></i></b> as well as a new way of doing things.
</p>
</transform>
</document>

HTML Output
===========
<html>
<head>
<META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<title>Data</title>
</head>
<body>
<h1>Welcome To Our WebSite</h1>
<p>This a the old recommended paragraphing technique
<p>Second <b>Para</b>
<div><br> This is my first line<br> <br> Second line after a break<br> </div>
The following is a link of recommended vendors:
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.microsoft.com">Microsoft</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.ibm.com">IBM</a></li>
</ul>
<div style="font-size:10pt;font-family:Verdana;">
This is a new era of <span style="font-style:italic;font-weight:bold;">Information <u>Overload</u></span> as well as a new way of doing things.
</div>
</body>
</html>

4. To effect targetted element transformation, see the templates with the mode="html"

VB Notes
========
If you are transforming the data and putting it back into a VB Control, you will find that using a textbox control will not work even if multi-line is set to true. You will have to use the richtextbox control.

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